


Shake the Branches and the Tree Will Sway

by spicy_diamond



Category: Noein
Genre: Alternate Reality, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 18:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicy_diamond/pseuds/spicy_diamond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Yuu the future has an infinite number of choices, for Noein there's only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shake the Branches and the Tree Will Sway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Erin_C](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erin_C/gifts).



> Merry Yuletide '11!

Their first kiss isn't beautiful. It's rough, and impulsive, and their lips come together so quickly that all Yuu can taste is the irony tang of blood from where he's bit himself on the tongue in surprise. His ears ring with the pounding of his heart and the sound of Haruka giggles as she darts away, all innocent smiles. Her bright pink tennis shoes squeak against the tiles of the train platform.

He's three steps away from his future. The wide, automatic doors that will take him away, far far away, to a prestigious middle school in the heart of Tokyo, and all he wants to do is cry.

Or kiss her back.

Or ask her why.

But, he scrubs his mouth viciously with the back of a fist, turns on his heel, and leaves. Shouts of encouragement send him off. His youth now officially behind him.

Their letters last only three months – _'How are you?' 'I miss you.' 'Wishing you were here.'_ – Then stop.

They never see each other again.

\- - -

Yuu is five when his mother explains the news.

“There's been a fire.” She tells him. Eyes wide and moist, she kneels, gently grasping his shoulders in her hands. Her voice is a soft, scratchy whisper that's sounds terribly out of place coming from his usually strict mother. “It was at Haruka's house.”

“Is she coming to play today?” As always, he brightens at the mention of Haruka's name. “She promised we could play hide and seek this time.”

“Yuu.” His mother lets out a shaky breath, her arms latching around him in an awkward hug. “My sweet boy, my sweet, clever boy... I'm so sorry.”

“When is Haruka coming to play?”

“She can't come over anymore, Yuu. Haruka...” And his mother does her best to explain in ways she thinks a child will understand. “Haruka decided to play hide and seek by herself this time.”

But, despite her good intentions, he is still a child with a child's logic.

Yuu spends the next three years looking for her.

Then. That failing.

He decides to try hiding as well.

\- - -

They run away together when they're twelve. Not yet teens, not quite children, half-giddy with the thrill of imagined independence as they sneak off. Fruit snacks in their pockets and their weak florescent flashlights fixed at the stars.

It's only been a few hours when the rain starts to fall, thick and heavy with an accompanying icy ocean breeze. The night is cold, far colder then they'd thought a summer night outdoors could be, and there's only so much their thin, play-sleeping bags can do. But, Yuu's determined and Haruka's cheerful and they hold hands all the long night.

The pair are found – cold, sick, tired – late the next morning. A hodgepodge mess of teachers, parents, and rescue volunteers swarm around them like so many frantic worker bees. Their mothers are near beside themselves in relief, eyes red from spent tears as they scold their children endlessly before swaddling them back up, safe and sound, to return to their separate homes.

The doting continues with a warm bed and meals and medicines until Yuu is absolutely sick of it all.

It takes him four weeks to get the nasty residue of grape flavored cough suppressant off of his tongue.

It takes him five weeks to realize that Haruka hasn't gotten better.

\- - -

The church is done up in layers of white and gold. It's only crepe paper and cheap, embossing foils. But, the room still manages to shine with happiness. The small, handful of guests present fill the air with chatter until the chapel is near bursting with the heady excitement of a new beginning waiting to start.

 _Their_ beginning, the two of them, soon to be joined together. Forever. And, to his mother's eternal displeasure, an addition to their small family already on its way.

It's everything Yuu's wanted since they were seven – playacting at marriage behind the jungle gym after school – and he's terrified.

Still, he smiles so hard it hurts. His tightly clenched fingers undoing all of the ironing work that had gone into making his black dress stacks crisp and perfect. And, smiles some more.

It's only the repeating jab of Isami's elbow into his ribs that manages to wake Yuu from his panicky, joyous daze long enough to hear the sirens.

Then, suddenly, it's all wrong. No flowers. No bells. Just a blur of motion as his world bleeds in shades of white, gold, and red – red lace, red satin, red everything. The colors hemorrhaging together until the church is stained in an endless, mottled flood of despair.

The nightmares follow him for the rest of his life.

\- - -

“Haruka.” She's halfway to the ends of the darkest, most restricted parts of their underground city when he finally catches up with her. His heart pounding in his ears as he gasps, out of breath for reasons that can't be explained by the simple boost of reizu enhanced speed that it took to find her before he was too late.

“Karasu...” Her mouth opens and closes slowly in, not surprise, but a calm sort of acceptance as she pivots around to look at him.

“I can't let you do this.” What starts out as an order ends as a plea. He's grown, a soldier now. Decorated even. With years of training and experience behind him. For all appearances, he's finally the man he's always wanted to be, and yet Yuu's still as weak as ever when it comes to her. Fingers trembling despite his best efforts, he moves to grip her wrist. His voice quivering like child's as he hates himself just a little bit more for his own cowardice. “I _won't_ let you.”

“You will.” Haruka says, her usually dreamy tone firm as she reasons with him.

“Haruka-“

“ _Karasu..._ ” She counters with a small shake of her head, hands moving up to cup his cheeks. Her toes arch and, before he realizes what happening, she kisses him. Her lips moving over his in a gentle motion that takes all of his willpower not to respond to. He manages. Mostly. But, it's still Haruka who breaks the kiss first and it's still Yuu who's left leaning forward in a vain attempt to recapture the feeling he's just lost. She stops him with a look. “You love me.”

He does, and it hurts so bad that he wishes desperately that he didn't.

“You became a Dragon Knight to help protect me – to protect everyone.” Her eyes glow, warm with an admiration so bright that he blushes just like the shy school boy he used to be.

Then, Haruka smiles and his heart stops.

“So let me protect you.” She finishes simply. “Because, if this is what it takes to save everyone, I love you too much not to go.”

Her fingers slip slowly from his cheeks, giving him one last caress in farewell before she's gone. Leaving him alone with nothing but the fleeting warmth of her touch and the syllables of her name on his lips as what's left of his soul begins to crumble.

“ _Goodbye Karasu._ ”

\- - -

And, in the darkened edges of time and space, Noein _howls_. The echoes sway, rippling endlessly over the stretch of everything that was, everything that is, and everything that might be. Then, finally, finally, _finally_ it all begins to quake.


End file.
